Dealing with Prejudice

Whether it is at work or in school, discrimination and prejudice will always follow those that are different.

Prejudice in Schools

Children often lack empathy and understanding for the different. Too often do we see kids picked on because they dress differently, act differently, talk differently and all other reason. The taunting, bullying, and teasing becomes part of the school routine. So all of it makes living with stargardt's that much harder. Afterall, it's bad enough havingto overcome the hardships of being visually impaired in this sighted world. It makes it that much crappier to be picked on and isolated by other kids who wants to be cool at other people's expense.


Unfortunately, this is the realiity of human being. Curtesy, respect, and understanding is a learned trait that links to maturity. Which just means that if you are different, there will always be people who will try to make you a target.

Work and prejudice

As we get older, the prejudice becomes less obvious. There is no doubt in my mind that there is still alot of discrimination towards the visually impaired. Except most of it is unseen, so no one gets in trouble.
Take work for example, I've gone through countless interviews which I can pretty much say, IF I WASN'T legaglly blind, I would hae gotten the job. Reality is, employers are still hesitant to hire someone that is "disabled" given that they have similar experiences and background. Of course no emploer would dare to come out and say, "i didn't hire you because of your sight", after all no one wants to be sued, but it doesn't mean the thought goes away. The only want out of this is to hope taht you meet an employer who will not judge you by anything more than your experiences.


So waht can you do? Not much besides be the best you can be. It's always been my philosophy that "we cannot control other's actions, the only thing we can change is ourselves" So if you are doing waht you can do, forget about those who are narrow minded, because if you are good at what you do, you will find your success and a place that appreciates your talents one day!

Useful Tool for Microsoft Windows

For those of you that do not know, Microsoft Windows (since Windows 95) had an imbeded function in all their systems. It's a program called "magnifier" If you look above, you will see a screenshot of what the program looks like. It's a strip of window that magnifies whereever your mouse points to.

How do I open the program? Where is it?

Simply go to you Start menu --> all program --> Accessories--> Accessibility -- > Magnifier

Or you cna goto Run... type in "magnify" click OK and it should call the ptrogram as well.

Magnifier with you mouse?

In certain MIcrosoft Model mouse, there is a special function that you can set one of your mouse buttons to act as a floating "magnifying card". This can be very useful because you would be able to open and close the magnifier glass with the touch of a button.

So which model has this helpful function? Look for Microsoft mice that has the "magnifier" function listed on its description. If it's not listed, it doesn't have it! For a list of products that include this function, go to the Microsoft sotre and search for magnifier. Or you can follow the link below to see.

http://store.microsoft.com/search.aspx?q=magnifier